Headphones increasingly provide users with access to ambient and environmental sound through features such as transparency modes, noise cancellation and sound enhancement. However, the most appropriate balance between external and headphone-generated sound may depend on what the user is doing, where they are, or their needs and state at a particular moment.
This project will explore the potential for intelligently adapting the ambient sound input of headphones according to the user’s context or state. The project could investigate how sensor data and contextual information might be used to dynamically adjust what environmental sounds are captured, filtered or presented to the user.
The project will consider different scenarios, such as studying, travelling, exercising, socialising or relaxing, and explore how adaptive sound environments could support concentration, awareness, comfort or wellbeing.
Key Areas:
- Headphone and sensor technologies
- Context-aware and adaptive systems
- Sound processing
- Human-centred computing
- AI/machine learning
- User experience and wellbeing
- Privacy-aware sensing
Potential Outcome:
A prototype or proof-of-concept demonstrating how headphone ambient sound could be dynamically adapted to the user’s context or needs, together with an evaluation of the user experience and potential benefits and limitations of adaptive sound environments.